A Happy New Year to all our readers.
I expect that both of you have had Covid by now, that is if you've been living in the (still) United Kingdom as we have. 66.6 % of our kids have had it, plus all our nephews and nieces and their kids, several friends, and next door's gerbil.
That Omicron mutant really 'kicks ass'. When we left Álora at the end of November they were finding one or two cases a day in the town. At the moment they are well into double figures there and now the overall rate in Spain is 2880/100,000.) January 2022 saw the highest number of Covid cases there since the beginning of the Pandemic.
Fortunately Omicron is a bit of a pussy cat and isn't killing as many people as those other lethal Greek items: Beta, Delta, Retsina and Ouzo. Most people here in Inglaterra have been wearing mascarillas (face masks), and many still are, even though our Prime Minister (at the time of writing), Boris Johnson, says we don't have to anymore.
Mrs.Sánchez and I aren't taking any chances.
Hasta ahora todo bien (So far, so good.)
We won't be ´filmed up' when we head back to Spain in a few weeks on the new Brittany Ferries ship 'Galicia', but the rules on board the ferry follow the rules in France, where Covid cases are still going por las nubes (sky high). We´ll see.
The MV Galicia is a bit of a disappointment. There is absolutely no on board entertainment even though the journey takes hours longer than the good old MV Pont Aven and if you want to check your phone there´s no signal or wifi unless you pay for it. Mrs. S. and I whiled away a few enjoyable hours 'making our own amusement' as they used to do in the old days.
I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'S'.
'Sea'
'No'
'Sky'
'No'
'I give in'
Mrs. S and I used to look forward to sipping a couple of glasses of Muscadet in the 'Piano Bar', followed later by the usually spectacular International Cabaret later in the evening. Mrs. S loves a good juggler. Monty liked the ´Dog Show´, too. He won a rosette for ´Best Trick' once. It´s just no fun anymore.
We
had no problems transporting our delicious olive oil back to Birmingham
despite 'Brexit jitters'. Sales are going well.
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| Liquid sunshine | |
Boris Johnson’s £840-a-roll gold wallpaper ‘keeps falling down’ as decorators called back in
It's a good job we had a better Christmas than last year to give us a break from all this excrement..
Mrs. S. and I entertained our substantial family at our winter residence in a fashionable suburb of England's 'second city' on Christmas Day (all the rules and guidelines were followed, of course). Everyone had tested negative before the Roast Butternut Squash and Harissa soup, but that didn't stop me checking my temperature for the next 7 days.
Phew!At the beginning of the New Year, in a deperate attempt to improve my piano playing, I put in a bid on ebay for a piano stool and 'won' it for £25.00. It's not a good idea,is it?, to bid in an auction when you've had a glass or two of wine, but this was a bargain. The only snag was that I had to collect it from Falmouth, in Cornwall, 263 miles (423 km.) away.
'We really need a break away', said Mrs. S., so off we popped to Falmouth for a few days.
If you´ve never been to Falmouth you´ve missed a treat.
It was called 'Smithwick' until 1660 but had to change its name after complaints from a town near Birmingham with a similar name. Some people still call it 'Pennycomequick', which I think is rather nice.
Even though it's miles from anywhere, except Truro, it's a thriving historical town with lots of pubs and restaurants, proper shops and a big castle built by Henry the Eighth in 1540 to keep out the nasty foreigners who, in those days were the Spanish, from sailing up the River Fal and capturing Truro.
The plan went well until 1688 when William of Orange, a Dutch foreigner with a fondness for handsome young men and pipe bands, landed a few miles up the coast at Brixham with 463 ships and 40,000 young sailors and conquered Britain como si nada, without a cross word or a shot being fired.
'Welcome to Blighty chaps. Cream teas for everyone on the vicarage lawn'
Our History books call this 'The Glorious Revolution' instead of The Dutch Invasion' and it's got nothing to do with Falmouth and even less to do with Álora.
If William of Orange had known about the pasty's in Falmouth I bet he would have landed there.
So THAT'S the plural of pasty!...and they should know, so there you are, all you punctuation pedants!
In the Cornish language apostrophe's are compulsory.
I've no idea where this Falmouth story is going but I'll just mention that I noticed my car needed two new front tyres just after we arrived. I called in at Falmouth Tyres where the nice chap there slapped on a couple of new ones and told me where to get the best pasty's (not too spicy, just enough gravy).
'Warren's, in Truro', he said. 'but they've got a shop here in Falmouth. The baker is 97 years old.'
I bought two large ones...one to eat and one to take home. They were delicious.
Although you won't hear anyone talking about it, Falmouth played a big part in supporting the slave trade trade by being The Royal Mail Package Station.
From 1689, Falmouth 'Packet Boats' sailed from Greenbank Harbour initially to Spain, but later, as the British Empire expanded, to America and the West Indies, delivering mail and valuable packages and sometimes passengers, in much discomfort, to the colonies. At one time there were 39 boats regularly making the crossings.
Lord 'Mad, Bad, Seasick and Dangerous to Know' Byron made the trip in 1809.
Because normal passenger ships couldn’t sail during the wars, people travelling overseas had to go on the packet ships instead. The famous poet Lord Byron did this in 1809, when he sailed to Portugal. He found the experience very unpleasant and wrote a comedy poem about the noise, heat and seasickness he found on his trip.
I bet he did.
The Ships' captains, officers and crew either lodged or lived in Falmouth. That's how the town grew and prospered and that's why there are so many pubs.
Now that here in the UK most of the Covid restrictions have been removed and we are able to get out about a lot more, I have been reminded of one of the main reasons I love going back to Álora and it's because the people there are naturally friendly and always happy to see us when we meet around the town. I can't say it's a Spanish or even Andalusian characteristic but I'm absolutely certain it's true in Álora.
It's taken me twenty years to work out why this is the case. I think I have the answer and it's all down to eye contact.
Mrs. Sánchez and I both grew up in a Lancashire town where most people used to say 'hello' to anyone, whether they knew them other or not. When we moved to the Midlands we realised that a lot of people found such behaviour unsettling, threatening even, but that hasn't stopped us doing it. Our default behaviour is to look for eye contact and say 'Hello'.
And that´s how people are in Álora. I hadn't realised I was doing it but I always look at people's faces when we pass. If we make eye contact I'll probably smile and say 'Hello' or 'Hiya' or even 'How do!' . Round here many people walk with their eyes down so, no eye contact, message received. In Álora they are nearly always looking for eye contact. During the last twenty years there I am on 'greeting terms' with literally hundreds of locals and I don't know the names of half of them. But the odd thing is, that once you've exchanged an 'Holá', they will remember you and greet you every time after that....and 'Holá' is such an easy thing to say.
Well, that's my theory. Try it out tomorrow.
The build-up to Semana Santa (Holy Week) has already kicked off. The Hermandades and Cofradias in Málaga have started publishing their posters, so Álora's won't be far behind. I can tell you that even the least religious of perotes will be praying that the festivities can go ahead this year after two years of Covid cancellations.
When we were in Álora last September we were impressed by a beautiful mural being painted on walls on the left of the one- way system. It was finished by the time we left. It's called 'El Mural de Lalone' and has been entered for the 'Best Urban Mural in the World 2022' competition.
You can vote for it from February 6th. by following the link above.
The other big news, especially for cyclists, is that the Ayuntamiento has installed un punto de reparación y mantenimiento de bicis, a bicycle repair point, at the edge of town. It contains screwdrivers and spanners and is at the Fuente de la Mania roundabout, which is the one with the big arch on it. It's free to use and is intended for the thousands of cyclists that pass through Álora every year.
I can't wait to get back. It's not easy being 'Man in Álora in Birmingham.
Juanito Sánchez February 2nd. 2022.
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